HOPE Lives On project still seeking stories from tornado victims

Spokeswoman Elyse Nicholson said about 20 written accounts of experiences from the Nov. 17 tornados, rescue efforts and cleanup have been submitted since the project was launched in January.

While many stories have come from residents whose homes were damaged or destroyed, accounts also are being sought from volunteers, first responders and others who were affected by the tornado.

Now that stories are being accepted online, a project Web page has been established and volunteers are helping with writing and proofreading, organizers are hoping the project takes off.

The Washington Historical Society and Washington District Library plan to turn the stories into a book that will be published around the first anniversary of the tornado.

There is no submission deadline, so other books could follow.

“Ten, 30, 50 years from now, we want people to be able to read first-hand accounts of what happened here,” Nicholson said.

A story submitted in January by Washington resident Vicki Scott could become one of the most talked-about in the book.

After she heard a roar “and I knew it was a tornado,” Scott ran into Our Savior Lutheran Church, across the street from her home on Kingsbury Road, because she doesn’t have a basement in her residence.

Several men outside the church had shouted at her to run into the church.

She didn’t know it at the time, but church member and past head elder Dan Walter took a photo of her running from the church parking lot into the church with the tornado behind her.

When she first saw the photo, Scott wrote, “I realized then just how lucky I was.

“I thank the good Lord for putting me in the right place at the right time.

“Once I’m able to move back into my house, that picture will have a special place so that I can see it every day to serve as a reminder to be thankful for the important things in life ... faith, family and friends.”

Scott, 63, wrote she took cover in the furnace room in the basement of the church with several others.

“Then it hit. The sound was unimaginable. Not only was the roar of the tornado loud, there was the sound of breaking glass and airborne objects slamming into the church. I could feel and hear the sound of air being sucked up ... it seemed to go on forever,” she wrote.

After it got quiet, Scott wrote, she was tentative about going upstairs. When she did, she saw broken glass in the church.

She looked out of the church’s main entry, which faces Dallas Road, and saw what she described as total devastation.